The Other End of the Line (2008)

Redundant and unnecessary.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Granger and his partner Charlie are struggling in the advertising business. They make a sultry and suggestive presentation to Kit Hawksin of Hawksin Hotels, a very demanding businessman. Hawksin is very disappointed that the ad executives do not get his conservative views, but he agrees to give them another chance.While in bed with his intimidating girlfriend Emory, Granger receives a call from CitiOne Bank saying his identity has been stolen. It is the first of many contacts Granger will have with "Jennifer David", who claims to be from San Francisco. Actually she is Priya Sethi of Mumbai, India.Priya is engaged to Vikram but doesn't love him. As is often the case in India, it is an arranged marriage and her conservative parents don't care what Priya wants. They are even bothered that she works the night shift (because that is daytime in the United States, where CitiOne wants its customers to think the callers are from) and seem to want her to leave that job. But Priya is very good at her job and enjoys it; she mimics an American accent perfectly. And we see the training the employees get: it's quite detailed and we see how her employer expects everyone to convince people they are American.Charlie, meanwhile, is also about to get married, and Granger will be his best man. This provides even more distractions.As part of his effort to win over Hawksin, Granger and Charlie have to go to San Francisco. This gives Priya a chance to meet Granger, and she reluctantly agrees to do so--in order to talk about business. She has relatives in the area and her family believes she is visiting them. Never mind how she gets so much time off work. But when Granger arrives at the meeting place, he sees several girls who could be "Jennifer". Realizing she has seen granger, and knowing she will never live up to his expectations, she gives up on trying to meet him. But then Granger bumps into her--literally. Granger and Priya immediately make a connection, and to make sure their relationship will work, Priya keeps quiet about her real identity, claiming to be a nurse from India on vacation.It just so happens Priya is staying at Hawksin Hotel, and Hawksin meets both Granger and Priya. He asks Priya for an evaluation of his hotel and she does a wonderful job, worthy of one of his commercials. For that he rewards her with one of the finest rooms.Meanwhile, Priya's parents wonder what has happened to her, and they angrily take off for San Francisco to retrieve their wayward daughter.Over the course of the movie, Granger and Priya run into numerous obstacles. Will they overcome them?Well, I can say this much. The ending is nothing short of amazing.Shriya Saran is beautiful, adorable, easy to like and quite talented. She does a very convincing American accent and comes across as very intelligent, though she's just cute enough not to be threatening. Unlike Sara Foster, who is merely pretty, but we don't want to like her and we're not supposed to want her and Granger to make it.Jesse Metcalfe also does quite a good job. Especially in one scene toward the end, but I don't want to give away too much. I'll just say he talks about the time he and Charlie went to summer camp. The clash between cultures provides some opportunities for comedy, and both leads make this work.Austin Basis is appealing, coming across as an friendly but somewhat incompetent. I especially liked how Hawksin intimidated him and pointed to his proper and quiet Japanese associate of thirty-plus years. Larry Miller, as Hawskin, also does a very good job as a demanding businessman. The conservative Indian relatives make this movie different. The father Rajeev is determined to keep his family in the past but realizes he is fighting a losing battle. He is appealing in a bumbling way.There is one hilarious scene at the San Francisco hotel involving words that can have more than one meaning. The movie does get slightly naughty from time to time, and it would be hard to describe it as a family film, but the version I saw likely had some offensive material cut out for broadcast TV and was relatively clean.It's mostly formula but it's a winning formula.

I find "The Other End of the Line" loaded with too much cliché add to that the suggestive background music/songs (like, Pretty Woman?..please). Domineering parents, narcissistic hot blond, nerdy friend, not so funny boss, I am beginning to wonder where is the requisite dog? The segments where Granger took Priya for a tour of San Francisco is very staged and has unconvincing actions. And the ending, jeez, right out of An Officer and a Gentleman. If you enjoy sappy comedic love story, this one is for you. Jesse Metcalfe's acting is good considering he is mostly known for his role as a hot stud in Desperate Housewife's. More acting lessons for him might land him a better scripted movie. The girl the played the role of Priya sometimes displays inconsistent emotions. I suppose she is trying to pattern her actions with that of Julia Robert.

Sometimes when you watch a movie, you shouldn't be too serious. After all, not everything can happen in real life. I liked this movie because of the good chemistry between the two leading actors, and those romantic scenes.There were some problems. For example, can Indian citizens get visas to the USA so easily? If that is the case, there would be a lot of Indians coming to the USA now. Second, can Granger actually ask to meet a girl without even seeing her pictures first? After all, he can just ask her to send him a picture via the email. Third, the speech Granger gave at his friend's wedding just doesn't sound real. And he stopped talking and had to rush to the airport right away, that is not what a normal person will do. Fourth, the whole call center people stopped working while they talk, and the whole group clapped their hands when they kissed. That is just unreal.I have seen a few Indian and US movies, it seems that those movies are always about marriage. Indian daughters want to find some nice husbands who live in the USA to marry to. Anyway, I enjoyed watching this movie despite a few blemishes.

This is an old formula for a romantic comedy, but if it is done well, it is still enjoyable to watch. It is nice to have something to watch which is relaxing after seeing some of the tense thrillers I also like to watch.The one thing that bugged me about this movie is the girl works as a tech support phone operator in India for an American company. Her big advantage is that she can sound "American" and people don't know she is in India. Why does that bug me? Because it reminds me of the thousands of jobs that have been outsourced to other countries for cheap labor at a time when our country is in the biggest recession since the 30s. It was hard for me to be sympathetic to the characters when in the back of my mind, I kept thinking of the "outsourcing" problem.I did like the actors.